The Fiat 500 Meeting in the Netherlands: Sittard-Geleen at Whitsun 2018
“Invasion of the Italian Cuddle Bears” was one of the headlines after a very successful meeting in 2013. Then, nothing happened for 5 years. In 2018: the revival with more than 150 participating cars.
a report by Angie Schlegel
Poster of the “De Club Van 500” for the Whitsun meeting 2018
A long trip lay ahead of me: I wanted to get to the Netherlands to join the meeting called “Fiat 500 Pinkstertreffen 2018” organised by the Fiat 500 Club Nederland. 1,800 kms in 1 week – even though this was almost ridiculous compared to the 3,000 kms in 13 days in 2015, when I did the “Tour des Grandes Alpes” organized by the Swiss. But it was another story this time because I was all alone with my Montgomery (Fiat 500 D, built in 1962).
When I arrived at Sittard on Saturday at 10:48 a.m., only one single Fiat was standing there. Later, I learned that the Dutch meticulously stick to departure times. But they waited for me which I found very kind of them. I was greeted by Sanne, one of the main organisers from the Fiat 500 Club Nederland. She guided me to the next place, the small market town of Geleen where the participants would stop for lunch. There was a big market event on that day. And then, they arrived: more than 100 Fiats, some in groups of three, some on their own and then a big peloton. They had been separated by traffic lights. Moreover, they had to follow a road book (in Dutch) which resulted in some participants getting lost so that they arrived later. I saw many Giardineras and a lot of Fiats in original condition. There was a group from Berne with nothing but Topolinos: the Swiss Topolino club honoured the event with its presence. Some of cars even had Italian registrations, showing that my 732 kms were not the longest journey of all participants to get here.
Sittard: Fantastic line-up of 150 cars on Sunday in beautiful weather
After lunch, the cruise continued. As I do not know Dutch, I just followed another driver. If this driver lost his way, I just switched over to another one and thus made my way to Sittard. This was quite funny, as either there was some mistake in the road book or the tour description was so tricky that Fiats popped up from each and every street with the drivers shrugging their shoulders, signalling that they had no idea how to continue. After arriving on site, I checked into the Hotel Merici. My Fiat, or rather very many Fiats, were all parked in a huge public underground car park. This was included in the overall fee. We had an open-air dinner on the square in front of the Coffee Mundo and enjoyed the meal. Soon I made contact as the Dutch are very sociable. I became acquainted with the editors of the Dutch “DE 500” magazine, who told me that they have been producing the magazine for almost 20 years now. Congratulations! The magazine appears quarterly and has 66 pages in A5 format. I also asked about the authors of the articles: I learned that the club members contribute “voluntarily” – the club, which is organised in several sections, such as the Swiss section, counts nearly 2,000 members.
The team: Just a few of the many organisers in and around my Fiat. Back: Frank Machiels (chairman of Fiat 500 meeting Sittard-Geleen), Cor Storcken (volunteer), Klaas Pollema (volunteer). Front: José de Bruijn (volunteer), Remco de Bruijn (organisation)
On Sunday, all gathered again at 9 o’clock in the morning. It was lovely day and 150 cars were standing in rows of 8 side by side. What a great sight! At 10 o’clock sharp, the bulk started moving. Again, we had to follow the road book, but tried to keep together. We passed through many small villages and all of them had speed bumps to enforce the speed limit. I am mentioning it because such speed bumps do not exist where I live. There are no fences and all houses have beautiful front gardens. Our destination was the “Kasteel Hoensbroek” which is one of the biggest castles in the Netherlands. It is located in the Hoensbroek quarter of the city of Heerlen in the south-eastern part of the Limburg province. Here again, everything was perfectly organised, we enjoyed our lunch buffet. At 2 p.m., we started back towards Sittard.
Cruise: Hoensbroek castle – lunch in one of the biggest castles in the Netherlands
Since we were allowed to return on whichever route we wanted and the arrival was scheduled between 4 and 6 p.m., Fiats standing in front of restaurants or ice cream parlours were a common sight. The absolute highlight was when all Fiats were lined up on the market square of the medieval city centre of Sittard, where normally food markets are held. The square is surrounded by one-storey houses from medieval times with many restaurants and cafés.
Market square of Sittard-Geleen: Fiat models populating the medieval city centre of Sittard
TV and radio stations attended the event and we learned that the mayor of this city owns a Fiat 500. Finally, we were treated to a traditional Dutch dinner in a small brewery. It had a big wooden entrance door, narrow steps led downward, we had a beer at the bar and then took other steps that led upward. A lovely courtyard called Mariapark opened before our eyes, but unfortunately, we could not stay there because it started to rain heavily. But the ambiance of the rooms where we had dinner was awesome. They served a stew and very tasty French fries. Of course, a number of thank-you speeches were held. I received a framed “Pinkstertreffen 2018” poster and Alessandro Scarpa, chairman of the Fiat 500 Club Italia, and, by the way, main organiser of the Fiat 500 meeting in Garlenda, gave a speech of thanks in fluent English. The meeting was excellently organised, the cruises were gorgeous and we had great food wherever we came. I will definitely return if they decide to organise another meeting, perhaps in 5 years.
Awarding procedure: John presenting the Swiss Topolino Club with the poster and the Fiat toy model, featuring the meeting details, in the beautiful Ambrass brewery in Sittard